Libra Association Renames Itself As Diem Association
By RTTNews Staff Writer | Published: 12/2/2020 9:19 AM ET
The Libra Association, a consortium of major financial partners for Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency project, has renamed itself as Diem Association. The name of the Libra Network has also been changed to Diem Network. The new logo has maintained the purple colour and fluid movement design, with 'diem' written in lower case.
The move comes six months after social media giant Facebook had renamed its Calibra cryptocurrency wallet as Novi cryptocurrency wallet in a bid to avoid confusion with the yet to be released Libra cryptocurrency. Novi is a new digital wallet for Facebook's Libra payment network.
Following the transitioning to the name "Diem", which denotes a new day for the project, the Diem Association said it will continue to pursue a mission of building a safe, secure and compliant payment system that empowers people and businesses around the world.
The Libra Association has been recently busy with the recruitment and appointment of key executives. Following the appointment of Stuart Levey as CEO in May, the Libra association went on a hiring spree, appointing Robert Werner as General Counsel, Sterling Daines as Chief Compliance Officer, Steve Bunnell as Chief Legal Officer, Ian Jenkins as chief financial officer, Dahlia Malkhi as Chief Technology Officer, and Christy Clark as Chief of Staff.
Additionally, the Libra Association also appointed James Emmett as Managing Director, Ian Jenkins as chief risk officer, and Saumya Bhavsar as General Counsel of the Libra Networks, which manages its cross-border payment systems.
Following the recruitment of key executives, the Diem Association is now prioritizing technological and operational readiness for launch. It is in constructive ongoing engagement with governments, regulators and other key stakeholders.
The Diem Association confirmed that it will proceed only upon receiving regulatory approval, including a payment systems license for the operational subsidiary of the Association from Swiss Financial Markets Supervisory Authority (FINMA).
The Association had initiated the payment system licensing process with FINMA in mid-April. The licensing process is ongoing and the operational subsidiary of the Association is in active and productive dialogue with FINMA.
Facebook had initially announced its planned global stablecoin Libra in June 2019. Just last week, the Libra Association reportedly announced that it is looking to roll out a dollar-pegged version of Libra in January 2021.
Geneva, Switzerland-based Libra Association was formed as an independent not-for-profit organization by the initial 28 financial backers of the Libra cryptocurrency project in June 2019. They were to invest around $10 million each in the project.
However, nearly 10 of the 28 initial members, including most of the payment firms, backtracked as they did not want to be publicly seen to be backing the project, fearing regulatory scrutiny. Some member added on later to now make it 27 members.
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Article written by an RTT News Staff Writer, and posted on the RTT News.com website.
Article reposted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe